Logical Reasoning

PT21 · S2 · Q2 Throughout the Popoya Islands community

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Throughout the Popoya Islands community pressure is exerted on people who win the national lottery to share their good fortune with their neighbors.

Given that ...

Throughout the whole country, people who win the lottery receive pressure from their community to share their good fortune with their neighbors.

How can it be that ...

In rural areas the winner often throws an elaborate feast, which wipes out all their winnings, whereas in the cities, winners often use their winning for their own personal investments.

Evaluate / Goal

We need something that's different about winning in a rural area vs. winning in a city area that could explain why the city folk seem to get away defying the community pressure to share the winnings.

(For example, maybe in a rural area, you know everyone and see everyone, so the community pressure is a lot stronger on you than if you live in the city)

Which one of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of the difference between the behavior of lottery winners in rural areas and those in cities?

Twice as many Popoyans live
No Impact
The raw numbers of rural population vs. city population don't matter. The fact that more rural people exist in the country overall doesn't explain why Josie, a lottery winner in rural area X, feels compelled to throw an elaborate local feast, whereas Moses, a lottery winner city Y, feels fine just investing his money for himself.
3% picked this
Popoyan city dwellers tend to
No Impact
This points to differences in terms of how rural vs. city folk tend to handle the buying of their tickets. We're interested in understanding a difference in terms of how rural vs. city folk tend to handle using any money they might win.
1% picked this
Correct
Lottery winners in rural areas
Why this is right
This is a distinction between rural and city, and it relates to winning the lottery. Since the answer is not an obvious one to interpret right away, it's important that we use those structural features as a reason to "work a little harder" at trying to understand this answer. We know community pressure to share your winnings exists everywhere in this country, but we were speculating that maybe it exists to a greater degree in rural areas (which effectively guilts lottery winners into spending their winnings on the community). This answer helps explain why there might be more communal pressure in rural areas. If you live in a rural area, then there is a public posting of all lists of winners. So everybody in town can find out that you won the lottery and pressure you to throw a big neighborhood party. In city areas, you find out by private mail, so you could potentially hide the fact that you won. Your community members don't have any to know, unless you suddenly start buying lavish things you never could afford before. Hence, a person in the city could win the lottery, keep it a secret, thereby eluding community pressure to share it, and invest the winnings (rather than make gaudy purchases that would potentially raise suspicions that you had suddenly come into money).
Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
91% picked this
Families in rural areas in
No Impact
The paradox isn't about sharing with your family, it's about sharing with your community. So the difference in average family size doesn't give us any way to explain why in rural areas you're more often pressured into sharing with the whole neighborhood, whereas in city areas you can more often get away with keeping the money for your own investments.
4% picked this
Twice as many lottery tickets
No Impact
This is another answer about a difference in terms of ticket buying. We're interested in understanding a difference in terms of how rural vs. city folk tend to handle using any money they might win.
1% picked this

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